Department of Conservation and Natural Resources staff and other partners with the Kittatinny Ridge Sentinel Landscape recently visited Fort Indiantown Gap to learn how conservation supports military readiness in central Pennsylvania.
The Gap ranks among the busiest National Guard training centers. In fiscal year 2023 alone, the facility trained more than 139,000 personnel. It’s also home to the Army’s second-busiest heliport.
During the tour, National Guard members and staff from the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs explained how the rural lands on and around the Gap are critical to its military training mission.
The variety of forest types, for example, help military units prepare for missions under a wide range of environmental scenarios.
The dark skies provided by the undeveloped landscape are especially valuable. Nighttime training missions depend on dark skies for effective use of night vision technology. The protected land north of the Gap offers among the darkest skies in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Earlier this year, this connection between conservation and military readiness led the federal government to designate the Kittatinny Ridge as one of 18 sentinel landscapes in the country. The designation makes more federal funding available to support conservation in this critical region.
